Electronic content can include a wide variety of audio and/or video presentations, such as music, dialogue, still pictures, movies, and the like. With the proliferation of portable playback devices capable of storing and rendering near-identical copies of original audio and/or video content, coupled with the distribution capabilities of the Internet, digital rights enforcement of audio and/or video content has become an increasingly important issue for digital content providers. Rights enforcement typically defines how digital content can be used on a given client device. For example, rights information associated with a piece of digital content may permit rendering of the content by the device, while at the same time preventing copying or distribution of the content.
The management and enforcement of digital rights is typically referred to as digital rights management or “DRM”. Although DRM systems (referred to as DRMs) often focus on content security and encryption, DRM may also involve the description, protection, and tracking of rights usage as well as management of relationships between rights holders. DRMs typically utilize a rights expression language (REL) for specifying content rights, types of users qualified to obtain those rights, and the actions necessary to enable content rights transactions. Typically, the rights embodied within a particular DRM system are static and are tied to well-defined actions that may be taken with respect to the content.
However, at the time of release it is not always possible for a DRM or other rights management application or service to foresee all actions that may be desired or otherwise necessary in the future. Accordingly, in order for current day DRMs to recognize such newly defined actions, a new DRM release is typically required. such a release is not always feasible from a cost and/or time perspective, nor is it desirable from a user perspective.